Black Women, Unattractiveness, and Pseudo Science

In keeping consistent with my “Defense of black women, since no one else seems to want to” theme from the other day, I just found out about yet ANOTHER assault on black women. But this one is too insane for words.

A website called Psychology Today – which, to me, appears to be less academic in nature and falls more in line with self-help type lit – recently came under fire for publishing an article “Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” The article attempts to provide “objective” and quantitative data explaining why black women – more than any other group – are considered the less attractive.

Author Satoshi Kanazawa cites a very dubious Add Health study (with no links, I should point out) assessing “…the physical attractiveness of its respondents both objectively and subjectively” as a foundation for his study. After providing results from a factor analysis conducted in this mysterious Add Health study, the author summarizes his study with the following mind-boggling conclusion:

The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone. Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than other races, and testosterone, being an androgen (male hormone), affects the physical attractiveness of men and women differently. Men with higher levels of testosterone have more masculine features and are therefore more physically attractive. In contrast, women with higher levels of testosterone also have more masculine features and are therefore less physically attractive. The race differences in the level of testosterone can therefore potentially explain why black women are less physically attractive than women of other races, while (net of intelligence) black men are more physically attractive than men of other races.

As if that wasn’t enough salt on open wound, this guy takes it a step further:

It is very interesting to note that, even though black women are objectively less physically attractive than other women, black women (and men) subjectively consider themselves to be far more physically attractive than others. In Wave III, Add Health asks its respondents to rate their own physical attractiveness subjectively on the following four-point scale: 1 = not at all, 2 = slightly, 3 = moderately, 4 = very. As you can see in the following graphs, both black women and black men rate themselves to be far more physically attractive than individuals of other races.

I’m sorry to say this isn’t an article written for The Onion. Homeboy is serious. The online magazine has since tried to remove the evidence, but not before falling victim to the permanency of the Internet. You can read that piece of s**t article here.

In no way do I claim to be an expert in any field of psychology, let alone evolutionary psychology. But I at least know that attractiveness is not based on testosterone. It is simply a subjective analysis of a person’s external (and, in some instances, interal) features; as shaped by and reinforced by pre-defined cultural norms. Historically, the eurocentric standard of beauty has been the barometer by which the attractiveness of all other races of women has been measured. I don’t deny that. But if white women have SOCIALLY bore the standard of beauty in our society, what exactly does that have to do with a person’s genetic pre-dispostion? How can a person be more attractive genetically? If Kanazawa was engaged in a social study, I’d be on his team. But he’s trying to turn a socially constructed idea (attraction) into a genetically-created idea. I know. WTF, indeed.

I could go on with my rant, but Natasha over at The B[E]-Girl Manifesta says it all:

And while I would be telling a lie audacious enough to land me a Congressional seat if I didn’t admit that I was hurt by this article, my hurt isn’t the impetus for my criticism. I can deal with hurt feelings in the face of solid, scientific, fact. What struck me about this “study” was how flimsy Kanazawa’s science was. Even with my laymen’s (and I do mean laymen’s) grasp of evolutionary psychology, the article’s assertions seemed unsupported by strong methodology. Even to my untrained eye and limited understanding, the holes were glaring. Kanazawa presented very little that suggested that he had access to – let alone utilized – tools that could measure something as subjective as human attractiveness.

[…]

Now, in addition to the questionable methods that he employs, the credibility of his research receives yet another devastating blow due to its complete omission of important socio-cultural factors that condition our ideas about beauty and attractiveness. We live in a world where the white beauty standard prevails. This standard was necessary in order to build a system of domination based on white superiority. The maintenance of this standard is just as important today to uphold the current system. And don’t get it twisted, this standard of beauty is not limited to the United States or Europe. It is a standard that has come crashing into every corner of the globe – often on the back of colonization and conquest.

Well, there you have it. Stupidity presented to the world under the guise of intelligent, sound, thinking. But I guess I can’t harbor too much anger with this Kanazawa guy. His thoughts – insipid as they may be – are his to have. Instead, perhaps we should take the momentum from this controversy and use it (as well as the Albert Haynesworth nonsense from my previous post) as a discussion tool on matters of socially defining and redefining beauty. There is something to be said about the long-term psychological damage levied on people who demonstrate severe self esteem issues; issues stemming from how society measures them. This is nothing to take lightly, and certainly not something to exacerbate with some bulls**t lugubrious junk science.

But should Kanazawa and folks like him continue with their “scientific” assault of black women, they can go right ahead. While he is working on a follow-up piece, I’ll be spending time with my black and beautiful girlfriend.

**UPDATE**

It didn’t take me too long to learn more about the Add Health study mentioned earlier. Here is its website, if you’re interested. In my initial response to the Kanazawa study, I joined a legion of other people calling into question this study. I was misguided in that respect. They had nothing to do with how Kanazawa interpreted or used the data in their findings. So to them, I offer a hardly apology.

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11 comments on “Black Women, Unattractiveness, and Pseudo Science”

Hey Dre,
He, He, He. This is going to be more fun than a white boy should be allowed to have. First, I would like to say that I agree with some of both your and Natasha’s statements. Your statement that, “Historically, the eurocentric standard of beauty has been the barometer by which the attractiveness of all other races of women has been measured.” Is dead on. However, I’m assuming you would like to believe that the perceived attractiveness of black men is, well, because we’re more attractive. As if culture has nothing to do wit it. I’ve had to listen to 20 years of black men are better athletes, better lovers, better musicians, better hung, better dancers, etc. ad nauseum from our media. We can have a discussion about whether or not it’s true, but the fact is our media has been promoting that rather heavily for some time. At the same time, black women have not enjoyed that hype, often portrayed as bitchy, and unattractive. (like Weezy, for instance)
The primary benefactor of this media has been black men who then……wait for it, used there new-found sexuality to get, you guessed it, more white women while subjugating their own women. Nice. In fact, as a white guy, I’ve often been stunned as to the degree black men will take it to. Black women now have to compete for the few remaining black men while also competing with white women. To the point of trying to make themselve appear more white by bleaching, hair straightning, and weaving. And tolerating totally unacceptable behavior. Ask any white guy how well that would go over for us!
Natasha then says he demonstrats, “complete omission of important socio-cultural factors that condition our ideas about beauty and attractiveness.” which further proves my point although she also omits the positive that is spun on black men. The truth is, recent society has been promoting black men and white women together, to the detriment of BOTH black women and white men. I feel you Natasha.
While I applaud your affections for your “black and beautiful girlfriend”, most black men are complicant at the very least and while the eurocentric standard of beauty definately plays a part, our history of racism doesn’t justify any racism by me, and it shouldn’t justify any by black men against their own women.

Seems to me there are attractive and less than attractive people of all races. To single out a particular race makes me wonder what the motive is. Also, we live in a country where 90% of the commercial­s and TV shows feature beautiful white women. Thats what we’re accustomed to. I think the feeling would be different if all the shows featured beautiful black women.

I tend to question methodologies that ask random people to judge the attractiveness of other random people without taking into account the influence of background and culture. Without taking into account a Westernized standard of beauty that has not only haunted some black women into buying cream to bleach their skin but prompted some Asian-Americans to undergo surgery to make their eyes more European looking.

That’s not to say white skin or round eyes are necessarily unattractive. Rather, a system that declares one set of physical attributes as the standard to which a multiethnic society must adhere is destructive.

I don’t really like asparagus. I know that by not liking asparagus, I’m limiting my choices in life, losing out on the nutritional value of asparagus, and in general, just being a very intolerant person when it comes to a vegetable which, objectively, is just as worthy as any other.

Even so, if you ask me, I will tell you without hesitation, that asparagus is just not attractive on any level, and I don’t like it. I feel that on some level, there has got to be a rational reason why, for me, asparagus is simply a lesser option.

I feel the same way about black women. I don’t want to disparage an entire race of women, as there is nothing inherently wrong with them, but I can’t deny the fact despite my best efforts, I seem incapable of being attracted to them at all. I can’t help but feel that on some level, there must be some quality or qualities that can be objectively identified which would explain this inability to find attraction to members of the gender I normally prefer.

It’s too bad that this magazine chose such a direct title for their article, and just as much a shame that political correctness has once again quashed what might have been an illuminating discussion.

It is outragious that Mr. Satoshi Kanazawa of Psychology Today would publish an article that “suggests” that any culture or gender is less attractive than another. Psychology at it’s worst. I am a white female who happens to believe that black females are more attractive, and maybe it’s due to testerone, but maybe not. I have read (real science, NOT pseudo-science) that black women as they age maintain their youth better than many races because their lovely skin contains more moisturizers. And I would bet that if it is true that the average testerone level of black women is higher than women of other races, that they maintain healthier libidos and pheromones, which I would bet INCREASES their attractiveness. Babies are attracted to human faces at birth–faces of ALL peoples and genders–SO, maybe they are smarter than Mr. Kanazawa.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think the flaw in that study is not in using testosterone as an indicator cause that is an objective measurement but in using a subjective measurement of beauty which as you have said has been eurocentric.

I believe that the standards of feminine beauty are different for a young man in Africa when compared to a young black man in USA. This is largely due to the exposure of the latter to the strong media pushing of the eurocentric and often fantasized image of beauty as mentioned by theHC.

In fact, evolutionary scientists would have us believe that we should find well-rounded women with big breasts, broad hips and big derrieres attractive (has to do with assessing genetic and physical health and certain biological mating signals that we got from our animal ancestors), in which case the black woman should beat out the thin emancipated white women at the mating game. I don’t happen to believe in this but this is what the theories of some scientists would conclude.

Me, I go back to “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. I vote for Shakira…….oh, and of course my wife, just in case she reads this.

Question:
Since the more recent trend in mass media, like MTV, VH1, Hollywood, etc., has been to promote more black women as sex symbols (Halle Berry for instance)and to have them increasingly shown with white men, do any of you feel this will turn the trend around? Also, could this benefit black women by making them less dependent on black men for a mate and thereby improving their prospects? Lastly, since polls show that black men are even less tolerant of “their” women dating cross-race than white men, is this something that could, or will, ever be acceptable to black men?